Deadly Apparition
Page 27
Taylor turned to the two petty officers next to him and noticed they were both carrying tranquilizer rifles. “Get those things loaded guys. I want you to dart some people.”
They nodded silently and unslung the tranquilizer guns.
• • •
It was easy to pick out the civilians in the group, thought Kenaston. They were the only ones not wearing white. There appeared to be five of them. Three were wearing royal blue windbreakers with QVR over the left breast pocket. The others were wearing tan and black jackets respectively.
As they ran, he noticed some of them were limping. Shot probably. He ran toward them as fast as his short legs could carry him. He recognized Wally Anderson and beckoned to him. Anderson saw him and waved.
“Get to the boats,” Kenaston shouted, pointing. “I’ll hold them off.”
He unslung his rifle and leveled it at the advancing riflemen. The crewmen rushed past him in groups of three and four. The lead rifleman was about 150 yards away. Kenaston tried to draw a bead on him, but people kept getting in his line of fire. Finally he got a clear view and fired a burst of three.
POP!POP!POP!
He missed, but this caused the rifle company to stop their pursuit. They shifted their focus to him.
POW! POW!
He heard one rifle ball zipped past his ear, and the second one struck him in the chest. He went down from the impact and dropped his rifle. He looked where it had struck him. He was going to have a bruise there. He picked up his rifle, shouldered it, popped up out of the tall dune grass and laid down deadly fire.
POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!
The riflemen were shocked to see him jump up unharmed and begin firing. Kenaston saw two of them spin around, hit by his spray of bullets and he saw two others clutch at their chests and drop onto their backs. The rest ducked down and tried to disappear in the grass. Kenaston decided that was a good idea, so he did too. Score one for the good guys, he thought. There were about twelve of them and he had hit four, maybe more. So he only had to deal with eight of them. They were in tall grass a little more than 100 yards away. He decided to pop his head up and take a look, and when he did he saw another twenty men coming down the embankment from the road. Christ! They were about 200 yards away, maybe more. He probably couldn’t hit them, but he opened fire anyway.
POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!
The men immediately flattened to the ground. Good! That would keep them occupied. He stuck his head up to take another look and…
POW!
It was as if someone had clubbed him with a hammer. Hard! The helmet took the brunt of that one. He was going to have to be more careful. These guys had zeroed in on him. They knew about where he was.
• • •
Taylor peered through a crack in the door. He could see them at the edge of the access road about 50 yards away. “Take out the guys with the guns,” said Taylor.
“But there are three guys with guns,” said one of the shooters.
“Take out the guys on each end. I’ll take the one in the middle.” There were a total of five guards in the party. Castillo and Tanaka were in front, with the gunmen right behind them. “Okay? Ready?” Both men nodded and put their rifles to their shoulders. Taylor let the party get closer. They were only twenty yards away now. “Now!” They swung around the door. When Castillo and Tanaka saw them, they dropped to the ground.
Pffft! Pffft! POP!
They had all hit their man, but one dart had bounced off the left guard’s leather doublet. The middle guard caught the bullet in the chest and went down immediately. The darted guard turned and fired his pistol at Taylor…
POW!
…and missed. The untouched guard fired at the man to Taylor’s left…
POW!
…and hit him. He went down. Taylor then fired a three round burst into the man…
POP!POP!POP!
…and he went down, followed by the man who had been darted. The startled admiral looked at his three guards on the ground. Lambert pulled free of him and ran to Castillo.
“Mason!” cried McConnell and ran to his side, sobbing. They kissed, and the Howard’s face twisted in distaste.
Taylor knelt to check on his man. “You okay, Jimmy?”
“Yes, sir. My fiber stopped it.” He pointed to a frayed spot on his body armor.
“Good!”
The two remaining guards drew swords. Taylor drew his 9mm Sig and tossed his assault rifle to Castillo. “It’s over, men. Drop your weapons!” ordered Taylor. They only scowled at him.
“Do it now!” bellowed Castillo and gestured with the rifle. They threw down their swords.
Two aides came through the doors walking haltingly. They were being prodded from behind by two of the Kansas assault team.
“Where’s Will?” asked Taylor.
“Watching the road,” replied one of them.
Taylor nodded, then took McConnell’s chin and tilted her teary face up toward him. “Who did this to you, babe?”
Her eyes slid toward Howard. Taylor cocked the 9mm Sig walked up to the admiral and put the barrel in his mouth. “This guy?” he demanded. The admiral’s eyes were full of fear and darting nervously right and left pleadingly at Castillo and McConnell. His teeth were chattering against the cold steel of the gun and sweat began beading on his forehead.
“Wait!” said McConnell. “Hold him!” Taylor withdrew the pistol, gestured to two crewmen who came forward and each grabbed an arm. The admiral struggled, but they held fast. “I want to see what he looks like naked! Cut off his clothes,” commanded McConnell.
With too much glee Taylor handed his pistol to McConnell, pulled his combat knife, and cut the admiral’s cloak from him, pulled off his hat and threw it in on the floor.
“Stop this!” roared Howard. “I’ll see every one of you swing from a yard arm for this, damn you! I’ll make every one of you…”
Taylor slammed Howard in the mouth with a vicious right fist, snapping his head back. “Don’t talk until I tell you to,” barked Taylor.
Howard blinked, shook his head, sniffed and said, “Castillo, you’d better get your African under control or…”
Taylor hit Howard again even harder. This time he felt Howard’s large nose break. Taylor grabbed a hand full of Howard’s hair, pulled his head slowly forward and blood began to run from his mouth and nose. “I said, ‘no talking’!” bellowed Taylor.
He returned to cutting away Howard’s clothes.
“Jesus!” said Castillo. “Go easy on him, Mase. He’s an old man.”
“He’s an old asshole!” raged Taylor. “What he did would have earned him jail time where we come from.”
“True,” sighed Castillo.
• • •
They knew just about where he was.
POW! POW! POW!
Shots were snapping through the tall grass all around him. Between the grass blades he saw one brave soldier on foot approaching him. He was about 50 yards away, so Kenaston lined him up in his sights and squeezed off a three round burst.
POP!POP!POP!
The man fell and five others leaped to their feet and began running towards him.
POW! POW! POW! POW!POW! POW!
It began to rain bullets. His body armor stopped one, but one ball struck him in the right shoulder and one in the right arm. There was a burst of searing pain in his arm, but his trigger finger still worked. He aimed and squeezed.
POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!
The five running soldiers dropped to the ground, either hit or taking cover. He wasn’t sure which. Then he saw ten men leap to their feet and began running toward him. Shit! They were about fifty yards away and closing the distance fast.
POW! POW! POW!POW!
A ball struck him in between the left shoulder and his neck, under his armor. It felt like a freight train had hit him,
and it burned like a white hot poker. His assault rifle felt like it weighed a ton! With difficulty he aimed and pulled the trigger.
POP!
That was it. He was out of ammo. He had another clip on his belt, but in his painful state he would never reach it and insert it in time. They were almost on him. He could see the angry face of the man coming at him. His teeth were clenched and his lips were peeled back. There was blood in his eye. I probably shot his buddy, thought Kenaston. He braced and waited for the end. The rifleman in the lead was less than 20 feet away now. Kenaston could see the pores in his sallow skin. The man aimed his rifle and…
POW! POW!
POP!POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!
Automatic weapons fire! The man over him went down clutching his side. Kenaston heard a voice in his ear.
“Trent, where are you? We can’t see you anywhere.” It was Chief Brown!
“I’m gon’ try ta stand up,” replied Kenaston. He tried to push himself up, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t get leverage against the ground with his arms. Damn! It hurt! He was getting dizzy. He was only able to roll over. He stuck his left hand up in the air.
“Okay, I see you. Stay right there. We’ll be there as soon as we mop up.”
“Okay,” said Kenaston.
POP!POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP! POP!POP!POP!
When he craned his neck and tried to see, he saw the riflemen jumping up and trying to run back up the embankment, but as soon as they did they fell under a hail of gunfire. Many of them were holding up their arms in surrender.
• • •
Admiral Howard’s naked body was not a beautiful thing to behold. It featured loose pale skin and saggy pouches everywhere. There were two saggy bags of skin on his chest. Breasts! And there was a larger saggy deformed bulge hanging at his midsection like some kind of satchel. His belly! And there was his flaccid penis which looked like a chubby grubworm hanging its head in shame.
McConnell giggled. “You were going to assault me with that?” she said, pointing.
Howard only made a noise that was between a whine and a whimper. The fire had gone out of him.
“Who’s in charge of Kansas?” asked Castillo.
“Maria,” answered Taylor.
Castillo said nothing.
“What? She’s command qualified.”
“I know,” answered Castillo. “But she’s young. What did she do when you told her to disappear with the ship if none of us made it back?”
“Nothing.”
Castillo said nothing again.
Okay, she freaked…a little.” Taylor could hear female laughter in his earpiece. “I think she’s listening.”
“Tell her we’ll be back soon,” said Castillo.
“We’ll be back soon, Maria.”
“Good! Stay safe!”
Then Taylor heard another voice in his ear. “XO, we’ve got everybody on the beach. Kenaston and a couple others have been shot up.” It was Chief Brown.
“Okay, chief. I’m here with the skipper and the others. We’ll be right there.”
They heard something that sounded like running water splashing on the ground. It was the Admiral Howard urinating.
“Let him go,” said Taylor. The two crewmen made faces of disgust and released him, stepping back out of the slick of urine. The admiral collapsed into a heap on the cobblestone floor in the puddle of his own urine, groaning.
Castillo began to examine the men on the ground. “This guy isn’t hurt too bad. He took a bullet just below his right clavicle. But this other one is done for. Three bullets through the gut. That’s pretty much a death sentence in this age.”
“I didn’t really want to kill him,” said Taylor.
“I know,” said Castillo. “This is the one who killed Deangelo.”
“Deangelo?” said Taylor, thoughtfully. “Wasn’t he…”
“Yes, a Navy nuclear technician with major league baseball potential.”
Taylor just shook his head sadly.
“He was instrumental in our escape from that church. Eric,” said Castillo, turning to Tanaka, “take two men and a coach and retrieve Deangelo. I don’t want to leave anybody behind. He was family. Meet us at the cove.” Castillo handed Tanaka the assault rifle.
“Yes, sir.” Tanaka motioned to the two of the crewmen in body armor and they all exited.
Chapter 21
Admiral Howard felt nauseous. His head was throbbing, his vision was blurred and his mouth hurt. He wanted to escape, but he didn’t think he could stand, much less run. His useless guards had all been tied up on the floor. He began to crawl toward the doorway, dragging his naked body over the cobblestones of the floor, slick with blood and urine.
He crawled around the guard that was near death…or maybe he was dead. It served him right. He was a terrible guard. He had been charged with protecting him and had failed miserably. He stared down at something, at first not recognizing it. He shook his head trying to focus. Gradually he recognized it as a pistol. One of his guards had dropped it. It was…still cocked and the match was…still lit. He could see the wispy smoke rising from it. He reached out and touched it. Yes, it was real!
He cautiously looked at the small group huddled to his left, but they were discussing something and no one was watching him. The large African had his back turned to him. He could shoot him and get his revenge. The fires of rage grew in him. He wanted only to kill the monster before him. The one who had denied him his prize…the God ship…and the woman. He deserved death. And Howard deserved glory and power and now he would never have them because of this man. And the…whore had kissed him! Unthinkable!
He slowly picked up the gun. He would kill the devil, but he would have to take careful aim. The black clothing gave these men protection from firearms. He would have to shoot him in the head to kill him.
• • •
“I don’t know how we’ll be able to evacuate everyone,” said Castillo. “We’re going to need boats. About five or six at least.”
“I only saw two at the cove,” said Taylor.
“I know. I think the only…
POW!
Blood sprayed Castillo and McConnell who were standing in front of Taylor. Taylor looked at McConnell in wide-eyed astonishment. His mind rejected what had just happened. Blood began pumping out of a ragged messy hole in his neck. He clasped a hand over it.
McConnell put it together quickly. She saw Howard holding a smoking gun, and she was still holding Taylor’s 9mm Sig Sauer. She clicked off the safety and fired.
POW! POW! POW! POW! POW! POW!
The admiral twitched with every bullet. He fell onto his back and his life drained away, eyes staring lifelessly at the ceiling. McConnell looked down at him with lips quivering, then she dropped the gun and ran back to Taylor. He was on the ground still holding his neck.
“Quick,” barked Castillo, “get him to the coach outside! We’ve got to get him to the doc right now! I think his carotid’s been hit!”
“No, no no!” sobbed McConnell, cradling his head. Taylor smiled up at her. Then carefully Castillo, Lambert, McConnell and two other crewmen carried Taylor out to the black coach with the silver trim on the access road. They ordered the driver to take them to the cove at once and they were soon speeding down the road behind two galloping white horses. During the rough ride, Taylor lost consciousness and let go of his neck, and his neck wound began to gush again.
“Crystal, keep pressure on his neck,” yelled Castillo. “Don’t let him lose too much blood.”
“Okay,” she replied, sniffling. She straddled Taylor and put her right hand tightly over his neck wound. “Hang on, Mason!”
Castillo took the communicator from Taylor’s ear and clipped it to his own. “Chief Brown. This is Castillo. Are you the
re?”
A reply came at once. “Here, skipper!”
“We’re coming in with Taylor. He’s been hit and about to go critical. We’re in a coach coming down the access road. We need to get him to the boat immediately.”
“Okay, sir. I understand! I’m going to have the inflatables waiting for you at the bottom of the embankment. Trent Kenaston and Lauren Gastmeyer are both in bad shape too.”
“We’ll take them all with us.” The coach hit a pot hole and Castillo hit his head on the ceiling. “Ouch!”
“Commander, is that you?” It was Maria Guerrero.
“Yes, Maria. Tell the doc that he’s got wounded incoming.”
“He’s already set up,” said Guerrero. “Listen, Admiral Drake just came up on his channel. He wants to talk to you. I’m patching him in.”
“Okay.”
“Commander?” It was Drake.
“Yes, admiral.”
“You’ve got to get your people out straight away. A regiment has made ready and is mobilizing for Jessup’s Cove. Someone has told them another Spanish barge has landed.”
“Oh my God!” said Castillo. “There’s going to be a blood bath!” The coach hit another pothole and jostled everybody. McConnell lost her grip on Taylor, but quickly regained it. The floor of the coach was soaked with blood. “I can’t get my people out without boats, admiral.”
“I’ve found a boat and sent it your way. It should be there shortly.”
“Is it big enough to carry everybody?”
“Yes, it should suffice nicely.”
“Thanks, admiral.”
“Offer me no thanks, commander.” There was strife in Drake’s voice. “This fault lays at my feet. You did England a service in her hour of need and then suffered terribly at the hands of her admiralty. For that I am sorry.”
“I don’t blame England, admiral. I blame power hungry men and human nature.” Castillo had offered no distinction which power hungry men he referred to, but Drake knew. Castillo could hear the heavy silence at the other end.
“God be with you, commander.” Drake signed off.
“Drake said he’s sending us a boat.”